9 Ways to Prepare for RM6397 - Healthcare Recruitment Framework

With RM6397 (Clinical and Non-Clinical Temporary and Permanent Staff) approaching, recruitment providers considering a place on the framework should already be thinking beyond the publication date.

The new Government Commercial Agency (GCA) agreement is set to bring clinical and non-clinical recruitment together under one framework, covering permanent and fixed-term recruitment, temporary staffing, contractors and wider workforce solutions.

For suppliers, the opportunity is significant. But so is the work required to put together a competitive framework submission.

The final tender documents will ultimately determine exactly what suppliers need to provide. However, there is plenty recruitment businesses can do before getting into the detail of the tender itself.

From identifying the right areas to target to gathering contract evidence and getting your internal bid team organised, early preparation can leave you with considerably more time to focus on the quality of your submission once the competition is underway.

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Why Prepare for RM6397 Early?

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when approaching major frameworks is treating the tender publication date as the starting point.

In reality, much of the groundwork required for a strong bid can happen well before then.

Once a tender is live, your available time needs to cover reading and analysing the documents, developing your strategy, gathering input from subject matter experts, writing responses, completing commercial information, reviewing content and managing the final submission.

If you're also trying to locate three-year-old contract data, update policies, find suitable case studies and work out who internally owns each part of the bid, that timeframe can quickly become difficult to manage.

RM6397 is expected to replace the existing RM6281 Clinical and Healthcare Staffing and RM6277 Non Clinical Staffing agreements, bringing a broad range of recruitment requirements under one procurement route.

The GCA currently lists RM6397 as an upcoming procurement under the Procurement Act 2023, covering clinical and non-clinical workers across permanent, fixed-term, temporary and contractor arrangements.

That makes now a good time to get the fundamentals in place.

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1. Decide Where Your Business Is Best Placed to Compete

One of the first questions shouldn't be “How many opportunities can we bid for?”

It should be:

“Where can we put forward our strongest case?”

The supplier engagement information referenced in our initial RM6397 framework announcement outlined a proposed 12-lot structure spanning areas including nursing and midwifery, medical staffing, social care, corporate functions, IT and digital, legal services, estates and facilities management, permanent recruitment and managed service models.

The final structure remains subject to the tender documents, but recruitment providers can still use the proposed structure to start assessing their position.

Consider:

• Where does your business have its strongest recruitment specialisms?
• Which sectors account for the greatest proportion of your existing work?
• Where do you have established candidate networks?
• What geographical coverage can you genuinely provide?
• Which services can you deliver at the necessary scale?
• Where do you have the strongest comparable contract experience?
• Which areas can you support with measurable evidence?
• Is delivery commercially sustainable?

A broader bid isn't automatically a stronger bid.

Focusing your resources on the areas where you can demonstrate genuine capability, experience and differentiation may put you in a better position than stretching your bid team across opportunities where the evidence is comparatively weak.

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2. Review Your Previous Recruitment Contracts

Once you've established where you are likely to compete, look backwards.

Your existing and previous contracts are likely to contain some of the most important evidence you'll use within the tender.

Identify contracts that demonstrate experience relevant to your potential RM6397 offering and begin documenting them properly.

For each contract, consider capturing:

Client and contract information

Record the type of organisation, contract duration, scope, geographical coverage and the recruitment services delivered.

Recruitment volumes

How many vacancies, placements or workers did you manage? What types of roles were involved?

Performance

Look for measurable KPIs such as fill rates, time-to-fill, retention, candidate compliance and response times.

Challenges

Were roles particularly difficult to fill? Was there a challenging mobilisation period? Did requirements fluctuate significantly?

Your approach

Explain what your team actually did to address those challenges.

Results

What changed because of your approach? Wherever possible, attach numbers to the outcome.

This turns a general statement such as “we have extensive experience supplying temporary healthcare staff” into evidence that can support a future tender response.

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3. Start Building Your RM6397 Case Studies

Don't wait until a tender question asks for an example before deciding which project to use - start developing a bank of relevant case studies now.

A useful recruitment case study should do more than describe the services you delivered. It should show the evaluator how your previous performance provides confidence in your ability to deliver a future contract.

A strong structure is:

Challenge → Requirement → Approach → Delivery → Result → Evidence

For example, if you successfully supported a client experiencing significant staffing shortages, don't stop at explaining that you filled the vacancies.

Explore:

• Why was recruitment difficult?
• What roles were required?
• How quickly were workers needed?
• How did you source candidates?
• What vetting and compliance processes were used?
• How did you maintain candidate availability?
• How did you communicate with the client?
• What KPIs were achieved?
• What was the measurable impact?

The more specific your evidence, the easier it becomes to demonstrate capability rather than simply claim it.

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4. Get Your Recruitment KPIs in Order

If your recruitment business is achieving excellent results but nobody is consistently recording those results, demonstrating your performance becomes much harder, if not impossible.

Now is a good time to review what data your business currently collects. Depending on your services, useful evidence may include:

• Fill rates
• Time-to-fill
• Candidate retention
• Worker availability
• Compliance rates
• Candidate vetting turnaround
• Interview-to-placement ratios
• Response times
• Client satisfaction
• Candidate satisfaction
• Complaints and resolution times
• Contract mobilisation performance
• Workforce diversity
• Training and development
• Service improvement outcomes.

Don't simply collect numbers for the sake of having them. Consider what each metric signifies about your organisation and how it could support a future response.

A consistently strong fill rate, for example, could support claims around candidate attraction and workforce availability. High compliance performance could strengthen an explanation of your vetting and onboarding processes.

The goal is to connect process → evidence → outcome.

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5. Review Your Policies, Certifications and Corporate Evidence

Quality responses aren't the only part of a major framework submission.

Recruitment providers should also make sure the corporate and compliance information they may need is current, accessible and internally approved.

The existing RM6397 supplier guidance highlighted reviewing certifications, insurance policies and organisational information as an area suppliers can work on ahead of the tender.

Rather than scrambling to update documents later, conduct an internal evidence audit.

Check the status of relevant:

• Insurance documents
• Certifications and accreditations
• Data protection documentation
• Information security documentation
• Equality, diversity and inclusion policies
• Modern slavery documentation
• Business continuity plans
• Health and safety documentation
• Environmental policies
• Social value policies and strategies
• Recruitment and candidate vetting procedures
• Safeguarding processes where relevant.

Exactly what is required will depend on the final procurement documents, so suppliers should avoid assuming that every document will be mandatory or scored.

The objective at this stage is simply to identify gaps early.

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6. Document Your Candidate Attraction and Vetting Processes

For recruitment businesses, saying you have access to a large candidate pool is rarely enough on its own.

You need to be able to explain how that pool is built, maintained and mobilised.

Review how well your current internal documentation explains your candidate journey.

For example:

Attraction → Screening → Vetting → Matching → Placement → Monitoring → Retention

Could someone outside your recruitment team understand exactly what happens at every stage?

Consider documenting your sourcing channels, screening methodology, right-to-work processes, qualification checks, references, DBS processes where applicable, candidate matching, ongoing compliance monitoring and escalation procedures.

Again, the exact requirements of RM6397 will be determined by the final procurement documents.

But clearly documented operational processes give your bid team much stronger material to work with.

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7. Start Thinking About Social Value

Social value shouldn't begin with the tender question. Look at what your  business already contributes and, crucially, whether you're measuring it.

Depending on your organisation, this could include:

• Creating employment opportunities
• Supporting people who face barriers to employment
• Apprenticeships and training
• Graduate employment
• Employability support
• Local recruitment
• Skills development
• Volunteering
• Charitable initiatives
• SME and VCSE supply-chain engagement
• Environmental initiatives
• Diversity and inclusion programmes.

The difference between “we support our local community” and a strong tender response is usually the evidence sitting behind the statement.

Start recording participation, hours, investment, beneficiaries and outcomes now.

That gives you a baseline from which future commitments can be developed.

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8. Review Your Commercial Position

The existing supplier information indicates that pricing is expected to form part of the RM6397 evaluation.

That makes commercial preparation another area that shouldn't be left until the final days of the tender.

Your commercial and operational teams can begin reviewing existing contract performance and considering factors such as cost-to-serve, sustainable margins, recruitment costs, technology costs, candidate attraction costs and the commercial implications of delivering at different volumes or across different regions.

This doesn't mean trying to predict the final pricing model.

Until the tender documents are available, suppliers won't have the complete commercial picture.

Instead, make sure the people responsible for pricing have access to reliable information and are ready to engage with the bid process when the confirmed commercial requirements are released.

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9. Identify Your Evidence Gaps

Finally, ask one simple question:

If RM6397 asked us to prove this tomorrow, could we?

You may discover that you have excellent experience but haven't captured the results.

Or strong processes that have never been formally documented.

Perhaps your case studies are several years old, your CVs need updating, or your social value activity isn't being measured.

Those gaps are much easier to address before you're working against a submission deadline.

Create a simple evidence matrix covering:

Requirement, evidence available, evidence gap, owner, action required

Even if the final RM6397 questions differ from what you anticipate, you'll enter the tender period with a much stronger library of usable material.

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Preparation Gives Your Bid Team More Time to Focus on Quality

The strongest preparation is practical:

• Understanding where your organisation is best positioned to compete
• Documenting relevant experience
• Gathering measurable evidence
• Reviewing compliance information
• Ensuring the right people are ready to contribute

That leaves your tender period for what it should be used for: analysing the confirmed requirements and developing a submission that responds directly to them.

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Preparing for RM6397? BWS Can Help

At Bid Writing Service, we support recruitment providers at every stage of major framework submissions.

Our support can include:

• Bid/no-bid decisions
• Framework strategy
• Lot selection
• Bid planning
• Evidence audits and gap analyses
• Bid library development
• Case study development
• Quality response writing
• Social value
• Compliance reviews
• Review and editing
• Final submission management.

Whether you're an existing NHS/public sector recruitment provider or RM6397 represents an opportunity to expand your public sector presence, starting early gives you more time to identify gaps and build the evidence behind your submission.

Planning to bid for RM6397? Get in touch with Bid Writing Service to discuss how we can help you prepare: info@bidwritingservice.com